THIS WEEKEND
Fueled by the powerful debuts of two new releases, the box office surged
to one of its biggest frames of the year as The
X Files and Mulan
accounted for an incredible 54% of ticket sales in the top ten.

The truth was out there
in theaters over the weekend as The X Files
: Fight the Future dominated the box office
with an Xcellent opening of $30.1M, according to final studio figures.
The Fox film, based on the hit sci-fi television series, landed the fourth
best debut of the year behind Godzilla
($44M in 3 days), Deep Impact
($41.2M), and The Truman Show
($31.5M). It was also the fourth biggest opener ever for the studio trailing
fellow sci-fi blockbusters Independence
Day which arrived with $50.2M in 1996
and Star Wars - Special Edition
which bowed to $35.9M in 1997, as well as 1992's Home
Alone 2 which opened with $31.1M. FBI
agents Mulder and Scully Xposed government conspiracies in 2,629 locations
giving it an Xceptional $11,464 average. After seeing five of its films
debut at number two, Fox finally returned to the top spot for the first
time in over a year, when Speed 2
hit number one in June 1997.

With a huge fan following
that is obsessed with the television show, it was Xpected that most would
turn out for the premiere weekend. Friday's $12.6M gross represented an
Xtraordinary 42% of the whole weekend pie. Normally a film will see about
29-33% of its weekend gross on Friday, but The
X Files Xperienced a surge on opening
day because of the Xcessive demand to see the movie right away. True X
Files fanatics could not wait until day
two to see the picture. However, most science fiction movies open big and
drop fast since the fans tend to come out the first weekend leaving a smaller
audience for subsequent weeks. The X Files
should Xhibit the same traits over the coming weeks.

For Twentieth Century
Fox, a lot was riding on the opening weekend performance of The
X Files. What was essentially at stake
was the possible creation of a motion picture franchise that would take
the studio well into the next decade. If The
X Files opened weak, then there would
be no future movies. But with $30.1M, Fox had a wonderful Fathers Day weekend
as a profitable new franchise was born. With relatively young stars David
Duchovny, 37, and Gillian Anderson, 29, Fox can release a new film every
couple of years for a long time to come. The
X Files opened stronger than last November's
heavily-hyped sci-fi entries Starship Troopers
($22.1M) and Alien:
Resurrection ($16.5M). Also it debuted
almost Xactly as 1996's Star Trek : First
Contact which opened with a powerful $30.7M
and finished its domestic run with $92M. Look for a similar trajectory
for The X Files.

The X Files
movie was an Xpensive project for Fox, costing roughly $60 million to produce
and an Xtra $25M to market. With this weekend's mammoth opening, a solid
domestic gross can be expected. And with the massive overseas popularity
of the television show, a mighty sum will be collected from all territories
by the time it finishes its international campaign. Currently, The
X Files is scheduled to Xpand into Singapore
this month; Australia, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Holland, Austria, and South
Africa in July; and South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia,
New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Israel, Norway, Finland,
and most of Latin America in August.

What did Mulan
do for her dad on Fathers Day? Not only
did the original G.I. Jane save him from dying in the Chinese Imperial
Army, but she also led the two, plus a whole cast of animated characters,
to a spectacular opening weekend gross of $22.7M. Disney's latest cartoon
adventure enjoyed the fifth biggest opening of the year and the fourth
best debut for an animated film behind The
Lion King ($40.9M), Pocahontas
($29.5M), and Toy Story
($29.1M). Marching into 2,888 theaters, Mulan
collected the moolah as the animated pic showed the muscles of a warrior
princess by averaging $7,876 per site. Mulan,
a story about a girl in ancient China who dresses up as a man to join the
army, features a strong female protagonist and the wise-cracking comedy
of Eddie Murphy making it extremely marketable to girls and boys alike.

With Mulan,
Disney exceeded the debut performances of their last two summer animated
hits. Hercules
opened wide with $21.5M last June and The
Hunchback of Notre Dame launched with
$21M one year prior. However, all three films opened at number two behind
big-budget action movies. Still, for the studio, Mulan
was its best opening since last November's
Flubber
which bounced into theaters with $26.7M. Reviews have been good and word-of-mouth
over the weekend has been very strong. With only one other family movie
hitting cinemas in the next two weeks (Doctor
Dolittle) and a big holiday weekend on
the horizon, long term prospects look bright for Mulan
and crossing $100M seems likely.

"We've had the
best exit polls of any Buena Vista movie with Mulan
this weekend" said Phil Barlow, distribution
head of Disney. He also stated that an incredibly high 85-90% of those
polled would definitely recommend the picture to others. Barlow explained
that the studio used a "classy approach" in promoting Mulan
and that the marketing was fantastic.
Disney expects a long successful engagement for the animated hit based
on the overwhelming audience response. Up next for the House of Eisner,
A Bug's Life
in November, Tarzan
next summer, Toy Story 2
next Thanksgiving, and Fantasia 2000
on the eve of the millenium.

After a two-week reign
at the top, The Truman Show
slipped to third with $12.4M. Down 38%, the Jim Carrey drama has minted
a solid $85.3M in 17 days. Truman now
looks set to reach the $120-130M range for its domestic run. Fourth place
went to the Harrison Ford adventure Six
Days, Seven Nights which collected $10.7M
in its sophomore frame. With $34.4M in ten days, the action romance from
Disney was off by a respectable 35%. Expect Six
Days to gross $65-75M by the end of its
run with strong overseas prospects looming. Rounding out the top five is
A Perfect Murder
still going strong in its third kill with $7.4M. Down 35% the Michael Douglas
thriller has grabbed $46.5M in 17 days and is on course for a solid $70-80M.
For reviews of all the new releases visit Chief's
Movie Review Page.

Last weekend's freshman,
the high school party film Can't Hardly
Wait, suffered a massive hangover as it
fell 52% to $3.8M. The Sony comedy has secured $16M in ten days, including
strong midweek results, and should reach be able to gross about $25M domestically.
Miramax's new indie picture Hav Plenty
debuted with $1.1M in 413 theaters giving
it a so-so average of $2,668.

Deep Impact,
the surprise blockbuster of the summer, is still ahead of Godzilla
in total gross by about $4M and remains the highest-grossing new release
of 1998. No film in current release looks to be able to outgross the comet
picture, unless Mulan
shows very sturdy legs. Disney's competing meteor flick Armageddon
is now the next challenger that seems to be able to outgun Deep
Impact. It opens July 1st and is expected
to dominate the lucrative Independence Day holiday weekend.

In sad news, after
half a year in the top ten, Titanic
finally sailed away and finished below the elite group. The sturdy love
boat was off just 15% in its 27th weekend and grossed $1M boosting its
domestic tally to $585.5M. This was probably its last frame of $1M or more
until it hits discount theaters nationwide.

Compared to my projections,
The X Files
opened almost Xactly as predicted nearing my $31M projection. Mulan,
however, was stronger and exceed my $18M forecast. Truman,
Six Days,
and Murder
were all close to my projections of $13M, $10M, and $7M respectively.

Beginning Wednesday,
June 24th, a new column will run on Box
Office Guru called Weekly
Rewind. Each Wednesday, go back in time to examine the box office
performance of past years. This week will feature a complete list of stars
and their $100M+ grossing films from this decade.

Don't forget to voice
your opinion in this week's new Reader Survey
on Titanic.
In last week's survey, readers were asked whether The
X Files would open with at least $30M.
58.8% answered Yes while 41.2% said No.

The top ten films grossed
$98.7M which was up 3% from last year when Batman
& Robin swung into to the number one
spot with $42.9M, and up 9% from 1996 when Eraser
opened at the top with $24.6M. Be sure
to check in again on Thursday for an in-depth look at next weekend's
activity which will see the debuts of George Clooney's Out
of Sight and Eddie Murphy's Doctor
Dolittle.

Below are final
studio figures for the weekend. Click
on the title to jump to its official home page:

This column is updated three times each week
: Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary),
Sunday (post-weekend analysis with
estimates), and Monday night (actuals).
Source : Variety, EDI. Opinions expressed in this column are those solely
of the author.